Indian Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 2 No. 2, July 2020

159

Communication

Where There is Will, There is Google!
Ajita Deshmukh

Assistant Professor, School of Education and Research, MIT-ADT University, Pune; 
Email: ajitadeshmukh13@gmail.com

Maharashtra has been the worst affected 
state by the COVID 19 pandemic. Pune, 
the IT hub of Maharashtra was one of 
the first to close down, a week before 
the rest of the country faced lock-down. 
Like others in the city, we were caught 
completely unawares while returning 
home on Friday, 13th of March, from 
the University. 

I teach B. Ed and M.A. Education, both 
post graduate courses.  Many of my 
students come from rural background 
where internet connectivity was a 
hindrance. Additionally, the number 
of devices was lesser than the number 
of people in the family who accessed 
them. To, overcome the challenge, the 
online sessions were conducted as per 
the convenience of majority of students 
and recording for others. Since we were 
already at the end of the academic 
session, the main task was to conduct 
doubt solving sessions. Thankfully, all 
the students have a valid email id and 
have at least one social media account.  
With the backdrop of the above-
mentioned constraints, there were two 
things that I was looking out for - one, 
an asynchronous tool and a strategy 
that would solve their doubts; the other, 
that could help me know the topics that 
they found most difficult for a focused 
discussion during the online sessions. 
I did not want them to be hassled with 
learning new tools at this time. Google 
came to the rescue!

Google Doc as asynchronous 
peer-learning environment

I created a Google document titled 
“doubt solving” for each course, shared 
it with the respective students giving 
them editing access. I wrote clear 
instructions of using the document 
with example. They could post their 
doubts and were expected to answer 
to questions put by others. They were 
instructed to write their names below 
and to write only one point, thus 
enabling discussion amongst all. I 
guided, corrected their points wherever 
necessary in the form of ‘comments’ 
at respective places. We thus enabled 
a comprehensive asynchronous peer 
learning environment. 

Google forms as a stepping stone 
towards a democratic flipped classroom: 
The second hurdle was to prioritize 
the selection of the topic for focused 
discussion. A firm believer of democratic 
class environment, I wanted to discuss 
their doubts rather than what could 
possibly be a doubt in my perspective. 
I created a Google form with a drop-
down menu, listing the course, the 
topic and a short answer format item to 
write the precise doubt. I informed that 
the doubt-solving would be arranged 
in descending order of the votes. I 
instructed them to continue filling up 
the form on every Sunday. This enabled 
me to schedule all the doubt solving 
sessions with a focus, incorporating 



Indian Journal of Educational Technology
Volume 2 No. 2, July 2020

160

flipped classroom elements.

Feedback from students: The students 
reported that the doubt solving 
document idea enabled them to ask 
doubts freely and by answering doubts, 
they were guided by the instructor- me. 
The students expressed that this activity 
eliminated the feeling of isolation 
while avoiding the clutter of WhatsApp 
communication. The students hinted 
that this type of exchange added to their 
motivation and gave them a feeling of 
being “heard”. The students conveyed 
that the instructor was perceived to be 
“approachable”.

Reflections: A democratic class room is 
the corner stone of an engaged class. To 
voice pinpointed doubts, the students 
had to be thorough with content.  
The doubt solving document, served 
as a channel for peer-learning, peer 
communication and learner-instructor 
communication. A well-planned strategy 
for asynchronous communication works 
effectively, keeps things organized and 
reduces the load of individual emails and 
that of data consumption. The flexibility 
of schedules saw more engagement of 
the students. Thus, simple and popular 
tools can be effectively used for a 
collaborative learning environment 
when planned carefully and with 
prudence.